Day 10: Pheriche-Namche Bazaar

Day 10 - Oct 9, Thu

Pheriche (14,340’/4,371 m)  - Namche Bazaar (11,285'/3,440m)
Approx 7 hrs 12.5 miles

 This was the longest day of the descent. Unfortunately we could not break up our journey down into even hiking days. The days from Gorak Shep to Pheriche and from Pheriche to Namche were very long and then from Namche to Jorsalle would be very short and Jorsalle to Lukla would be relatively short too. The reason was altitude and quality of lodges. We preferred to chug onto Namche rather than spend another night in the miserable guest house in Tengboche. And on the way back you can make these choices.

I woke up early and got some beautiful pics of the sunrise over Pumori and Labouche Peak on fire! Very rewarding! After breakfast we started our long hike down. On this trek nothing was easy. If we weren’t panting on a lung-searing uphill we were suffering the knee-crunching downhill. Urmi had the most problems in steep downhill’s but Revant was always by her side to help her down.

The best part was that the views did not pale or become stale. You enjoy totally different views going the opposite way because you rarely look back on the way up. We had Kamtega and Thamserku in front of us dazzling in the October sunshine as we hiked along Dudh Kosi river. 

As we got closer to Tengboche the mountains started getting greener and we could see some shrubs. It was very picturesque!

This was also the day we had the run in with a group of Yaks. We realized that while on the ascent, waiting for a Yak group to pass us gave us a chance to catch our breath – having to walk behind a group on the descent was downright painful.

 We tried to find a patch of trek where you could run faster than the whole group of Yaks to get ahead of them. So at one point with Dunbar in the lead followed by Urmi, Anisha, Sanjiv, me, Shachin and Revant taking the rear, we decided to do just that. Dunbar led us up a higher path and we had to literally run really fast past the whole group. Urmi, Anisha and Sanjiv made it past but on the last bit I just couldn’t catch my breath and had to give up and let the herd pass us by.  Fortunately Revant was with us and he was on the vigil for another patch. Some time later he spotted one and we made a second attempt at out running the beatss! This time we were able to safely cross! Yayyy! Quite an adventure!

 We realized the volatility of human memory as we traversed what must have been the steep descent (now ascent) from Tengboche to Deboche that we had covered a few days prior.

It was a reminder that just because we were retracing our steps we were in no way the master of the terrain or the altitude. The ascent left me breathless and dazed and by the time we got to Tengboche I was totally exhausted. I somehow had the impression that we would be stopping for lunch there but was informed that we had to go another 30-40 mins to Phungi Thanga! I was quite bummed. Shachin gave me some snacks to keep me going.

At Phungi Thanga we had a good lunch but the trail became more difficult and draining after that.  

This last leg was relentless and never ending – at every switchback we hoped it would be the last only to find another after it. I did have some interesting conversations with Revant when he told me about his lovely wife and kid and life in the village and career choices! We finally got to the now familiar paved brick road to Namche and our lodge “The Nest”.

At the lodge we were not fortunate enough to get the lovely rooms we had got on the way up. We had hoped for a good hot water bath but regrettably there was no running hot water. Upon request we got some buckets of lukewarm water. At dinner we ordered wine and “Teachers” whiskey. We wanted to treat Revant and Dunbar and insisted they dine with us at our table. They really enjoyed the drinks. We also ordered chicken and non veg for the first time! We were surprised to see the South African couple there. It turned out that beyond Dingboche the husband developed some Heart issues and they had to turn back. They seemed disappointed but were happy to see us. We had a good time sharing some wine and stories! It was a lovely relaxed evening!

NEXT - Oct 10, Fri – Day 11 Namche Bazaar (11,285'/3,440m) – Jorsalle (9022’/2750m)